Now Innovating

Some 200,000 Canadians are diagnosed annually with bloodstream infections. About 8,000 of these patients will die from sepsis and other complications. With treatment timelines often being a factor, Faculty of Science biochemist Dr. Ian Lewis, PhD, is leading a team of researchers to develop a rapid diagnostic tool. The team hopes to reduce diagnostic timelines in order to get life-saving treatment...

Julia Robertson, Katherine Yu, Ashna Maredia, and Zach Hong are third year students in their undergraduate medical education at the Cumming School of Medicine. The team of innovators joins the podcast this week to discuss their online tool that is designed to help immigrant patients prepare for their doctor's appointment.  Through recent focus groups, the team learned that communicating with a doc...

Craig Elias shares details of the upcoming Virtual Startup Weekend hosted by 150 Startups. The event is intended for those looking to find success in business. Attendees will take part in an online learning weekend where they will be placed on teams and led by some of Alberta's most promising first-time entrepreneurs to learn how to validate business ideas. Participants will also compete in a pitc...

Dr. Henry Penn, PhD, shares details of the upcoming growing season at an off-grid hydroponic food production unit located at the Kluane Lake Research Station (KLRS) 200 kilometres northwest of Whitehorse, Yukon. This will be the second growing season at Ag1054, which provided 300+ kg of fresh produce for sale to local communities in 2021. Henry's team has made some improvements to the Ag1054 unit...

Dr. Eddy Lang, MD, is an emergency room doctor and the department head of Emergency Medicine at the Cumming School of Medicine. He is helping plan a major international conference on overdiagnosis coming to Calgary June 9-12, 2022. The conference will include international experts in the field of over-diagnosis and is open to the general public. Dr. Lang shares his thoughts on the innovative proce...

Applications are currently open for two innovation fellowships. The Parex Resources Innovation Fellowships are open to researchers from across the university who are immersed in academic research and community partnerships leading to start-ups or technology advancement based on new discoveries, insights, and innovation. The Innovation Postdoctoral Fellowships are awarded to postdoctoral fellows wi...

We speak with Shelley Kuipers in the final episode of season 2. Shelley is an activist in business, entrepreneurship and investment and is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of The51. The51 is a financial feminist platform that brings together women-led capital for women-led businesses to build mutual wealth and community impact. This includes the Financial Feminism Investing Lab at the Haskayne School of...

In episode 19 we speak with Keri Damen, Executive Director of the Hunter Hub at UCalgary. In this role, Keri leads mentorship in entrepreneurial thinking at UCalgary. She is dedicated to connecting and growing the university's entrepreneurial thinking and innovation community to ensure students from all disciplines have the skills and experience necessary to succeed in the next economy. Through th...

In episode 18, we revisit many of the incredible conversations we have had on [now innovating]. We launched this podcast from the Office of the Vice President (Research) in the fall of 2021 with the intention of engaging incredible changemakers in our community. We believe conversations with those who have both failed and succeeded in innovation and entrepreneurship can help the next generation of...

In episode 17, we speak with Dr. Adam Pidlisecky, PhD, an Associate Professor in the Department of Geoscience at UCalgary and the Associate Department Head of Strategy and Innovation. Adam is leading the Academic Entrepreneur in Residence (AEIR) program as a pilot opportunity for those researchers in the early stages of innovation and entrepreneurship. The AEIR program is aimed at making it easier...

We speak with Dr. Craig Ginn, PhD, in episode 16. Craig is a Professor of Metis ancestry in the Department of Classics and Religion at the University of Calgary. His Songs of Justice Project more recently evolved into the Animal Kinship Project. This socially innovative work has taken Craig into the Evolve to Innovate (e2i) program at Innovate Calgary (more information on this program can be found...

In this episode, we speak with Derrick Hunter, President and CEO of Bluesky Equities. Derrick is an active champion for entrepreneurial thinking, chairing the external advisory committee of the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking and a member of the external advisory committee of the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Calgary. He sits on the board of directo...

In this episode, we speak with Alice Reimer who is the Site Lead at Creative Destruction Labs Rockies (CDL) in Calgary. Alice is a successful entrepreneur, previously co-founding Evoco which has become the standard construction management system for global retailers including Walmart, Home Depot, and Staples. Alice has also served as CEO of Chaordix, a pioneering software leader in the crowdsourci...

Episode 13 features a conversation with Headversity CEO Dr. Ryan Todd. Headversity is a workplace mobile platform that allows organizations to put the mental health of employees back into their hands. Dr. Todd's entrepreneurial business stands alongside his many other endeavours which collectively aim to redefine how psychiatric services are provided in Canada. He shares his insights into taking o...

Dr. Scott Kraft and Nicola Quiggin join the podcast to share details of the current application process for the third SPARK Calgary cohort. The SPARK program is based at the W21C Research and Innovation Centre. SPARK Calgary supports academic digital health innovators move their projects forward into clinical practice, with the primary aim of benefitting patients. It is a one year program with a 5...

In episode 12, we speak with Carlene Donnelly who is the executive director of CUPS. Founded in 1989, CUPS works to help Calgarians escape poverty and overcome trauma. The charity's mission is to build resiliency in people through integrated healthcare, education, and housing support. Carlene's team believes in partnerships with government, research organizations, local businesses, places of worsh...

UCalgary researchers Dr. Taylor Chomiak, PhD, and Dr. Tamas Füzesi, PhD, share details of the tool they have created to help their team identify patterns embedded in digital data. Local Topological Recurrence Analysis (LoTRA) is a simple machine learning model capable of outperforming deep-learning models in detecting Parkinson's disease from digitized handwriting samples. The researchers also for...

We begin season 2 by speaking with John Wilson, President and CEO of Innovate Calgary. Innovate Calgary is the innovation transfer and business incubator at the University of Calgary. Its mission is to help individuals and teams form companies and gain licensing. John shares details of how Innovate Calgary provides intellectual property management, commercialization guidance, technology and innova...

The UCalgary ecosystem is poised to lead the energy transition with an investment announced this week from the Government of Canada. Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) is investing $2,140,205 to support the Energy Transition Centre (ETC) in downtown Calgary. The ETC is a collaboration between the University of Calgary, Innovate Calgary, Avatar Innovations, and the energy industry....

Dr. Morteza Chehel Amirani, PhD, shares details of his UCalgary chemistry team's work with Katal Energy. Morteza joined the company as Research Lead in 2017, with the goal of developing a cleaner burning diesel fuel (Katal Green Fuel - KGF). That goal is now being realized. Recent testing in a diesel-burning ocean vessel is allowing Katal energy to tout KGF as being able to immediately reduce carb...

Dr. Ranita Manocha, MD, is increasing knowledge and awareness of the proper fitting and use of walking aids through an innovative mobile app she designed. Launched in November, the ICanWALK© app is an interactive platform designed for patients, caregivers, and clinicians. It incorporates videos and short questions to teach and evaluate fitting walking aids and how to use them, depending on the typ...

UCalgary alumnus Dr. Rowan Cockett, PhD, tells us about his text editor platform Curvenote, developed for modern science. Curvenote is a tool to help scientists, researchers and engineers accelerate the speed of scientific discovery by easing the methods by which sharing, thinking and writing is linked to data and computation. Curvenote allows users to create living documents for collaboration amo...

Dr. Jim Dewald, Dean of the Haskayne School of Business, discusses how meaningful this week's funding announcement for the Creative Destructive Lab (CDL-Rockies) is for entrepreneurs at the University of Calgary. CDL-Rockies brings together experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and subject matter experts to expedite the growth of early-stage science and tech-focused companies. CDL-Rockies charges...

Dr. Bruce Barton, PhD, is the Director of the University of Calgary's School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA). Bruce shares his insights into the innovative ways in which the performing arts community has reimagined its relationship with the audience through the COVID-19 pandemic. The SCPA recently re-opened its doors to live audiences for the 2021-2022 performing season, with students and f...

Dr. Angelique Jenney, PhD, shares details of a project she is leading that intends to educate students from the faculties of Law, Social Work and Nursing on how to address childhood exposure to domestic violence. The project aims to develop a virtual gaming platform for use by these students to practice and improve their client-interaction skills in a low risk environment. The project represents a...